COVID-19 Among Workers in the Seafood Processing Industry: Implications for Prevention Measures — Alaska, March–October 2020
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COVID-19 Among Workers in the Seafood Processing Industry: Implications for Prevention Measures — Alaska, March–October 2020

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Details:

  • Journal Article:
    Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
  • Personal Author:
  • Description:
    Large COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in high-density workplaces, such as food processing facilities (1). Alaska's seafood processing industry attracts approximately 18,000 out-of-state workers annually (2). Many of the state's seafood processing facilities are located in remote areas with limited health care capacity. On March 23, 2020, the governor of Alaska issued a COVID-19 health mandate (HM10) to address health concerns related to the impending influx of workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic (3). HM10 required employers bringing critical infrastructure (essential) workers into Alaska to submit a Community Workforce Protective Plan.* On May 15, 2020, Appendix 1 was added to the mandate, which outlined specific requirements for seafood processors, to reduce the risk for Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that causes COVID-19, in these high-density workplaces (4). These requirements included measures to prevent introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into the workplace, including tTesting of incoming workers and a 14-day entry quarantine before workers could enter nonquarantine residences. After 13 COVID-19 outbreaks in Alaska seafood processing facilities and on processing vessels during summer and early fall 2020, State of Alaska personnel and CDC field assignees reviewed the state's seafood processing-associated cases. Requirements were amended in November 2020 to address gaps in COVID-19 Prevention. These revised requirements included restricting quarantine groups to ≤10 persons, pretransfer tTesting, and serial tTesting (5). Vaccination of this essential workforce is important (6); until high vaccination coverage rates are achieved, other mitigation strategies are needed in this high-risk setting. Updating industry guidance will be important as more information becomes available.
  • Subjects:
  • Source:
  • Series:
  • ISSN:
    0149-2195 (print);1545-861X (digital);
  • Pubmed ID:
    33914728
  • Pubmed Central ID:
    PMC8084125
  • Document Type:
  • Place as Subject:
  • Pages in Document:
    5 pdf pages
  • Volume:
    70
  • Issue:
    17
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:

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